Homegrown carb adaptor

[Maverick250]

: I keep hearing the advantages/disadvantages of the Clifford vs. Stovebolt carb adaptors. Seems like it would be just as easy to make one from relatively thick (1-2") aluminum plate or billet. The plate would bolt to the original carb mount on the manifold, then the carb could bolt to the plate. You'd have to taper the air passage from two to one barrel and smooth everything out, but I bet it would be shorter from top to bottom than either Clifford's or Stovebolt's, and you could orient the carb front to back, rather than sideways. The linkage would probably still work, or at least with minimal modification. I put a Holley-Weber 5200 on my '83 Ranger v6 by making a similar piece with a large center oval rather than two holes so the progressive carb could feed both sides of the engine. I think the plate could be mounted closer to centered over the single barrel opening than either adaptor. Has anyone tried this?

 

[CoupeBoy]

I havent gotten it made yet, but I have been working on one.
http://phlegm.us/FordSix/tech/Induction/Carb_Adapt/DIY/Make_Your_Own.html

ron

 

[Anonymous]

If someone can post some dimensions of the adapter I may be able to make them. Currently, I am taking my second term of CNC at the local college and I may be able to talk my Prof into making a couple for a lab. Using Feature Cam I don't think it would be too hard to make. Although the machine is down right now due to a controller on one the the motors not working properly and randomly plunges in the Z plane.

 

[CoupeBoy]

Getting dimensions was part of my problem, the redneck roots never thought to buy things like calipers or proper anlge checking things (protractor maybe?). I planned on roughing out the first one to see how/if it worked then moving onto measuring a centerline, determing the angle for the base carb adapter, then find the middle of the OE carb hole and place the 2v carb at a 90° to it and center it over the hole.

Other problems to consider.
1. Carb spacing
2. Different 2v carbs
3. Different models of cars (some have a linkage bolt in the side of them)
4. Cold weather (heater hose preheat, some people will need it)

I'm sure there are other things to consider but those are the 4 from the top O'my brain. If I can find somebody locally that has more knowledge/experience in drawing up plans/blueprints for this sort of thing I would be more then happy to post them.

ron

 

[XFlow_Fairlane]

for the heater pipe maybe a length of AL tube that clamps to the side?

nick

 

[Anonymous]

Just a comparison of how I think the adapter should be made and how the Stovebolt adapter is.

Coupeboy, Couldn't you lay the stovebolt adapter on its side, cut it through the middle with a band saw, grind it flat, and weld it back together with the correct alignment? Then you would have a prototype you could take to a foundry. I think you could have several of them cast for pennies on the dollar of what stovebolt, let alone Clifford charges.

 

[CoupeBoy]

Interesting idea, but I'm afraid of patent infringment. Plus I dont know of anybody (locally) that does foundry work (private or public). That adapter still doesnt have the water heater part built in, nor does it have the little stub for the older (falcon?) throttle linkage. AND the bolt spacing on it is kind of narrow, it will not bolt on a 1.75" stock opening, unless you cut the ends out of the slots and used heavy washers on bolts to hold it down.

I kind of need that adapter for my buddy's '66 Coupe if I cant get my homegrown one to work. Maybe if somebody else has one they could look into it. Or if mine does work I can try it as I won't need it anymore. But with the progress I have been making :roll: it might be a while..

ron

(now that I think about it a little more, I wonder if my SWMBO retained any of her art class education, she learned how to cast things in pewter using the "lost wax" process)

 

[Anonymous]

Stovebolts seem to be cheaper than cliffords. Since they are having theirs cast by someone, why not approach stovebolt on changing their design a bit and casting one for our Fords too.

He sells us a lot of holley/weber carbs and everyone that talks to him says he is a really super guy to deal with

Just a thought

Later,

Doug

 

[Anonymous]

I work in a machine shop full of racers who love to build billet parts with our 10 CNC machines on weekends. Billet heads, billet intake manifolds, billet billets, etc.....

If we could work out a specification for a H/W adapter plate, I could probably build billet ones of stainless or aluminum with smiles and cooperation of all sorts...then I could have one, too.

The EGR adapter on the late '70s Fairmont engines took the place of the hot water plate on the earlier engines. If I modeled an adapter to this height, would it be the same as the height of the hot-water adapter? I've never seen one of these hot-water things with my own eyes, just pictures.

The later heads also had a 1.75" opening, where the old 'stangs and Falcons usually had 1.5" openings. I don't think I can get away with 2 designs, just one - so I'd go with the larger one. I have Autocad and we use MasterCam and Solidworks for the CNC modeling, so we're ready for the big time, just need to figure out what could work and I need to find a H/W carb that's jetted for these 200 engines.

Where can I find a reasonably-priced H/W that's already set up?

 

[Maverick250]

Stovebolt used to have the H/W 5200, remanufactured. I think he charged $65 last summer when I put one on the Ranger; no core charge. When I worked on the truck, I just needed a plate with a single open oval, because I wanted each of the progressive throats to feed both sides of the engine. It also had to raise the carb up so the linkage arm would clear the flat v6 manifold. As to the water heater for the carb, the Ranger used the EGR to heat it, but I just left it off with no (so far) ill effect. The Ranger runs great with this setup. It gets 17 MPG avg in town. It's got a 2.8L v6 (171ci).

 

[CoupeBoy]

Im getting closer to having a working unit. I called a guy locally to see what he used to measure things (standard school issue protractor). So I layed out all my gaskets into the configuration that I think will work the best and mapped out all the angles and measurments (in mm).

I then used all the measurements to draw up a "cleaner" picture

Right in the center needs to be a 1.75" hole and I didnt measure how big the top hole needed to be as I was told by the person I am going to have help me that I would have to rough it out by hand anyhow.

ron

[edit]I used a '74 Maverick 250 EGR to intake gasket for the bottom, and a '78 2.3L w/5200 gasket for the top. If anybody knows (or has better measuring devices) any of my measurements to be incorrect please let me know. Otherwise I will *hopefully* get the first one made in the next week and then make any corrections (if necessary)[/edit]